Full-patch Hells Angel granted day parole

Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun05.16.2012

Ronaldo Lising a Vancouver member of the Hells Angels is led into the Main Street police station by a member after police scooped up a number of members of the motorcycle gang in 1998.Ward Perrin
/ Vancouver Sun Files

Ronaldo Lising a Vancouver member of the Hells Angels is led into the Main Street police station by a member after police scooped up a number of members of the motorcycle gang in 1998.Ward Perrin
/ Vancouver Sun Files

This tattoo is associated with full patch members of the Hells Angels. The "AFFA"represents "Angel Forever, Forever Angel". Image (left) provided by the CBSA and image (right) provided by Calgary Police Service Integrated intelligence Unit...
/ ‘Tattoos and Their Meanings,’ Canada Border Services Agency

Hells Angels Death's Head symbol super-imposed over a "1%"tattoo.The "1%"signifies that the individual is a member of an outlaw motorcycle gang (OMG).Image provided by Calgary Police Service Integrated Intelligence Unit..
/ ‘Tattoos and Their Meanings,’ Canada Border Services Agency

Right arm of Robert Leonard Thomas who is a member of the Kelowna Hells Angels, and is wanted for murder in relation to the June 12, 2011 beating death of Kelowna resident Dain Phillips.Vancouver Sun
/ Handout

Left arm of Robert Leonard Thomas who is a member of the Kelowna Hells Angels, and is wanted for murder in relation to the June 12, 2011 beating death of Kelowna resident Dain Phillips.Vancouver Sun
/ Handout

Cedric Baxter Smith, 59, a full-patch member of the Vancouver Hells Angels, is missing and feared dead.Handout
/ RCMP

Two Hells Angels charged in the same murder case, Robert Thomas (shown here) and Norman Cocks, suffered cuts and bruises in two separate fights with other gang-linked inmates.File photo
/ Vancouver Sun

Hal Bruce Porteous, also known as Hal Heffner, is a rapper as well as Hells Angels member..
/ .

Full-patch Hells Angel Ronaldo Lising has been granted day parole, despite concerns from parole board members about his ongoing membership in the notorious biker gang.

Lising, 49, has been in jail since 2005, serving an 11-year, nine-month sentence for a series of convictions including conspiracy to traffic, gun possession and assault.

He had been denied earlier bids for both full parole and day parole because of negative associations and bad behaviour in jail.

But on May 3, Lising was granted a six-month day parole trial after improving his conduct on the inside and taking courses to better his chances of rehabilitation, according to parole board documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun.

Lising’s life was under threat in prison last year, the documents said, and he was put in segregation for his own safety.

After he was sent back to the general population, he was found unresponsive in his cell on April 16, 2011 with a large amount of methadone in his system.

There was no explanation in the documents about how he ingested the drug beyond a comment that: “The Security Intelligence Officer investigated the incident to determine if there was a link which resulted in your being segregated for your safety.”

At Lising’s hearing this month, some Corrections officials expressed concern that he had not yet left his position with the elite Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels.

“When asked why you had not yet resigned from this organization, you said this particular Hells Angels motorcycle club required the resignation to be done in person with a formal handing over of colours and other Hells Angels paraphernalia and could not be done by sending a letter from prison,” the parole board members noted.

Lising told them he would “resign from the Hells Angels as soon as [he] could do so in a manner acceptable to the club.”

Lising was grilled by board members about the biker gang and its links to organized crime.

“You basically described this club as a group of men who like to ride motorcycles together,” the parole board said.

“When asked, you estimated that the Hells Angels have a majority of its members not engaged in crime, but a significant minority of its members are engaged in crime.”

Lising told the board that “club business” was not criminal and that drug trafficking and other crimes were the “personal business” of members.

The board said Lising was minimizing the activities of the Hells Angels and that “it’s clear to the board that your continued membership and/or association to this motorcycle club would expose you to individual members of the club engaged in crime.”

Some of Lising’s convictions stem from the special undercover probe dubbed E-Pandora that used agent Michael Plante to infiltrate the Hells Angels.

When Lising’s house was raided in July 2005, police found “handguns, ammunition, a pen gun capable of single-shot fire, body armour, brass knuckles and what was described as an abduction kit which contained a balaclava, gloves, walkie talkies and plastic zap straps,” the parole documents noted.

Board members Ulf Konrad Ottho and Laura Hall imposed special conditions on Lising’s release into a community facility.

He can’t associate with any Hells Angels or hang-arounds and prospects in their program. He can’t wear his Hells Angels colours or other items with the gang insignia or indicating support for the organization. And he can’t attend clubhouses or Hells Angels events.

“The special conditions are considered reasonable and necessary to protect society and assist in your reintegration as a law-abiding citizen,” they said.

In less than a week, Abbotsford recording artists Hedley went from touring Canada with two supporting acts and a popular new album to pariahs ensnared in allegations of sexual misconduct. On Monday, accusations that band members Jacob Hoggard, Dave Rosin, Tommy Mac and Jay Benison had engaged in sexual behaviour with teenage girls surfaced on Twitter […]

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